Monday, September 17, 2007

Not the best morning...

We were away for the weekend so we are all a bit tired. Add the fact that Curly Q. and I both have colds and you have the perfect recipe for a rough morning. I was excited about starting our new language arts program, but I guess I didn't do enough to build excitement for Curly Q. She started out dragging her feet because she had to write each of her new spelling words. So the activity that should have taken her 10 minutes took her nearly 30.

Then it was time to read, and I was explaining why certain words need -es instead of-s to make them plural and she was not even pretending to pay attention. I snapped and told her, "If you want to homeschool you need to pay me the respect that a school teacher would demand. You need to sit still and pay attention or homeschooling will never work." Not my proudest moment, and I could tell I went to far when her little chin started to quiver. I asked her if she needed a break and she nodded and ran to her room. I could hear her sobbing in there, and of course I feel like a heel.

When I went in to talk to her she told me that she was afraid I was going to make her go to public school because she wasn't paying attention. Obviously I never intended to make public school a threat!!! She may go to public school someday (even some day soon),and I don't want her to think it is a punishment.

Anyway, we managed to finish reading and writing (which she didn't complain much about even though she loathes it). Then Bear joined us and we read about hieroglyphs. Curly Q. decided to save Math for this afternoon, and to tell the truth I was thrilled to not push her through anything else.

I keep reminding myself that tomorrow is another day...

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